'Birds bomb Eastern, 14-0

Published: June 1, 2001 12:00AM

Playing in the familiar surroundings of Ashland's Brookside Park, sleeping in their own beds and having the support of a sizable, partisan crowd seemed more than enough to put the Loudonville Redbirds at ease Thursday afternoon.

But there's still something about a state semifinal softball game, no matter where it's played, that makes players' stomachs do cartwheels.

"Yeah, there were nerves today," Loudonville junior Jill Stanley said. "I went to the bathroom countless times before the game. My stomach was hurting in the first inning."

By the end of the game, though, all the aches and pains belonged to the Reedsville Eastern Eagles, as the Redbirds settled down and delivered a 14-0 thrashing to advance to the Div. IV championship game Saturday afternoon at 12:30. Loudonville will meet Gibsonburg, a 3-1 winner over previously unbeaten Convoy Crestview in Thursday's first semifinal, in an attempt to win its third state championship.

Loudonville, now 22-6, collected eight hits off Eastern starter Juli Bailey and benefited from five errors by the Eagles to plate five unearned runs. Bailey was wild all game long, as evidenced by her six walks and five hit batters. When she wasn't walking or hitting batters, Bailey was giving up hits, usually to Loudonville's Bobbie Atkinson or Mindee Fisher. Atkinson had three hits, including a three-run double, and drove in five runs. Fisher was 2-for-2 with four RBI, including a pair of bases-loaded walks.

"A walk is just as good as a hit and with the bases loaded you know it's going to score a run," Fisher said. "(Bailey) wasn't really throwing anything good near the plate, so I just took them. The other two times I got my pitches and just hit away."

"I think we started timing (Bailey) the third time through the lineup," Loudonville coach Bill Herman said. "She was little wild, and once again we were a little more patient today and that's helped us throughout the tournament. We're not swinging at a lot of bad pitches for the most part.

"I never thought about two touchdowns, but I'll take it," said Herman.

Loudonville starter Erin Christopher was as dominant as Bailey was inconsistent. The junior lefthander allowed just one hit -- a first-inning bunt single from Carrie Wiggins -- and fanned 15 to improve to 16-5. The Eagles' only threat came in the sixth when they put runners on second and third with one out, but Christopher escaped with a pair of strikeouts.

Despite the lopsided final score, the Redbirds kept the game close early by squandering various scoring chances against Bailey. Whereas his squad played with a looseness that belied its inexperience during regionals last week, Herman noticed a difference Thursday.

"The girls were really uptight. I got a sense of that before the game," Herman said. "If you'd seen us play this season, then you could tell that from the first three innings. This is a totally new experience for a lot of these girls."

Fisher's bases-loaded walk in the first made it 1-0, but the Redbirds left the bases loaded that inning, and then stranded two runners in the second and third frames.

"Today was probably the most nervous we've been in the tournament," Christopher said. "Coming to Ashland and playing near home, we might've felt we wouldn't be as nervous. You're going to have that though, and hopefully we got it all out of the way before Saturday."

Most of the Redbirds' nerves were gone by the fourth inning, when they pushed across four runs to take a 5-0 lead. Atkinson had an RBI single, Stanley was hit by a pitch to force in a run and Fisher drew her second bases-loaded walk during the rally. Fisher came back in the fifth with a two-run single during the Redbirds' five-run outburst. Atkinson closed her big day with a three-run double in the seventh.

"Both Mindee and Bobbi had fantastic games," Herman said. "I'm so happy for Mindee, what with her being the lone senior starter. She's really hitting the ball well right now."

The same could be said of Christopher's pitching. Although Loudonville's ace felt she wasn't at her best, Herman found little about her effort to quibble with.

"What can you say about Erin," Herman said. "She was just fantastic. She was popping the ball pretty good today."

"I didn't really feel as though I was throwing any harder than I normally do," said Christopher, who closed the game in style by fanning four Eagles in the final inning. "I didn't feel overly dominant at all. I didn't feel as if it was my strongest game."

The radar guns in the stands said something different, though, as they registered Christopher's fastball as high as 61 mph. Stanley could attest to that figure.

"Hard. Erin was fast today," Stanley said. "I have a batting glove with a pad in it on my catching hand and I can still feel it. It hurt, but it was good."